Adventures in New York - coping with work and home. Exploring knitting and taking time to relax.

Saturday, August 04, 2007

What A Commute Home !

So it was Friday night and I was the last one left in the office. I managed to finish all of the requests that I had outstanding. *whew*

Watered my plants, cleaned up my desk (just a little) and left for home.Well almost made it out when I realized I had left my pocketbook in my desk drawer. Once again! I should have known since I was alot lighter. So I went back for it and was on my way again.

The subway station was stiflingly hot but I managed to catch the train that was just about to leave. When I transferred to the line that stops at my home station it was just as hot. So I took the train going in the opposite direction and sat in the air conditioning for the two stops before it turns around. Unfortunately it was obvious that it was going to be an express and I needed a local for my stop. Usually just as you get near the train on the opposite track the doors close in your face. This time I made it!

So there I was with a seat, in working air conditioning, catching up on some podcasts and knitting. When we got to the first major stop in Queens as usual a whole pile of people got on and some managed to grab the remaining seats.

All of a sudden, a man who had just gotten on and was sitting in a seat nearest a set of doors got violently ill - explosively christening what had been a fairly clean subway car floor. As you can imagine, people were trying to avoid the mess when he got sick again. At this point people were rushing away from him since he didn't seem to be stopping. I can only assume he was extremely drunk since he didn't seem to be at all concerned with what he was doing and the effect it had on everyone else.

I wasn't that close to him but I got a bit squashed in the rush. Luckily I didn't get christened by any of the mess and I wasn't close to stepping in it either. I just moved closer to the end of the seating I was on when I could. It was only 3 stops before I would get off. I warned some people getting on who were instinctly going towards the unoccupied seats and a couple with small child and baby carraige just about to get on when I was getting off.

So of course just when you think you have successfully escaped, the drunk gets off at the same stop! I held back and waited until he and the others had gotten closer to the lower level before I went down the stairs. Just in case. When I reached the street I saw him staggering towards the opposite sidewalk and it looked like he might be aiming for another bar when he reached the sidewalk. But he turned and didn't go in. Thankfully that was the last I saw of him.

When I got home Mom told me that the cat had either left a pool of diarrhea or puke in the hall just outside our bathroom within the last hour. Asking her what it was was useless since she couldn't tell or remember and then she couldn't remember what she did with the paper towels she used to clean it up. Well they weren't in ANY of the waste baskets in the apartment which left only one place. Yep, instead of dumping it in the nearest wastebasket (either in her room or the bathroom) she admitted that she might very well have flushed the paper towels down the toilet.

The one place that I constantly repeat this mantra to her "Only TOILET paper goes into the TOILET". If the toilet or line gets stopped up I get to pay to get it fixed and any other damage caused. Nothing we use other than toilet paper will break up enough to not be a problem.

In the past I have always told her just to put a paper towel over the mess and I would clean it up when I got home. That way she would be able to avoid stepping in it and I would be able to track what problems the cat was having. So instead she is bending over to clean it up and getting dizzy and tops it all off by flushing things she shouldn't. *sigh*